My Own Personal Hero
by Live Don't Just Exist
Summary: Connor gulped, "We didn't know the spell would- would-" "Would turn him into a child?" Nico hissed and the murmuring from the demigods around them grew with interest. They just noticed that Nico was standing protectively in front of a someone small, hidden protectively by the darkness and shadows. Therefore, the child was hard to notice at first.


**Prompt for Day Two:** _Superheroes_

 **Author's notes** I'm sorry I'm so slow at updating these prompt. I just want them to be drabbles but they expand to four thousand words and just go out of control. I'm sure everyone notices that I always, somehow, find a loophole around the prompts instead of going the obvious way XD Well it's because I want these to be unique.

The Stolls are, sadly, only featured at the beginning.

* * *

 _ **My Own Personal Superhero  
**_ _by Live Don't Just Exist_

* * *

"STOLLS!" A loud, angry shout echoed throughout the camp. Two guilty sons of Hermes flinched and exchanged nervous looks. The campers knew to give them a wide berth as the temperature suddenly dropped and the surroundings seems to darken.

"Think we should run?" Travis whispered to his brother, Connor, nervously.

Connor nodded hurriedly. As the two of them turned around to make a mad escape, a certain female demigod stepped forward and blocked their paths. Travis cursed and glared, as Katie stood in front of them, hands on her hips.

"Oh no you don't." She said with a slight 'tut' that Travis did _not_ find endearing at all. "Man up for a change, and face the consequences of whatever chaos you did this time."

"How are you sure it's _our_ fault?" Connor crossed his arms, "If only my brother didn't have a huge crush on you I'd-"

But before Travis could tackle his _traitorous_ brother to the ground and make up some crazy, wild story about Connor being a sad, attention-seeking liar, something cold and slick caught them by the ankles and made them freeze on the spot.

The two sons of Hermes turned slowly and barely got a glimpse of shadows keeping their legs in place before they looked up at the livid face of a certain son of Hades.

" _What in Hades,_ " Nico wasn't shouting and his face was calm, but his eyes were narrowed and cold, "Did you do to _Will Solace?_ "

Both brothers, though they would deny it to their dying day, let out terrified squeaks.

Travis raised his hands, "Look, di Angelo, it was just a prank-"

"-a _harmless_ prank! We swear! Just a _tiny_ joke for laughs you know." Connor nodded hurriedly, "I mean, we do this with Will _all the time._ Prank war, son of Hermes and all that-"

"Yeah, Will definitely understands-"

"NOT AT THE MOMENT HE DOESN'T!" Nico suddenly yelled, making the two jump in surprise. The son of Hades tried to reign in his anger when he felt a certain someone tremble behind him. He breathed in deeply, "You went too far." He said, voice icy and scarily calm.

"It wasn't on purpose!" Connor managed to stutter out.

"It was the Hecate cabin's fault!" Travis said, waving his hands wildly. The children of Hecate who were watching, shot the two glares. "All we wanted was an innocent spell that would change Will's hair color!"

Connor gulped, "We didn't know the spell would- would-"

" _Would turn him into a child?_ " Nico hissed and the murmuring from the demigods around them grew with interest. They just noticed that Nico was standing protectively in front of a someone small, hidden protectively by the darkness and shadows. Therefore, the child was hard to notice at first.

The son of Hades felt the trembling behind him grow worse and he cursed under his breath, reaching behind him to pat his boyfriend-turned-child on the head. He felt Will cling tighter to him.

"Did Will really turn into a kid?" A female voice interrupted them and Nico looked up to see Katie looking at the scene with interest. Nico had seen her block the Stolls from escaping, mentally, he commended her for a job well done.

The son of Hades sighed and decided that maybe if everyone saw what he was talking about, the Apollo cabin can make a cure with the Hecate cabin and then this would be over with. He could deal with the Stolls later, what's important was that Will was safe- _ish_ and comfortable. He had no idea how to take care of a child, his younger sibling was only Hazel, who could take care of herself and was _not_ a child anymore. Katie probably knew how to take care of children, since she had a lot of younger siblings to take care of.

"Yeah."

"Can we see him?" She gestured to Nico's protective shadow cape. The son of Hades took in a deep breath, giving one last glare at the Stolls, before the temperature rose back to normal and the darkness around him receded.

Without the darkness covering his back like a cape, everyone could see a little boy that seemed to be around five to seven years old. He was wearing blue medical scrubs that was too big for him and a stethoscope around his neck, which was dragging behind him. He had a head full of blond curls, his skin pale and soft looking. He had his face buried on Nico's side.

A few girls cooed at the adorable child who held on tighter to Nico as though he wished he could bury himself there. Katie approached cautiously.

"Will?" She called out uncertainly and Nico looked down to see the boy shake his head. Katie's voice softened into a tone she frequently used around her own little siblings, "Hey, it's okay, Will, it's me Katie. I'm a friend of Nico's. I'm your friend too."

A pale blue eye peeked at the girl before Will trembled and buried himself back into Nico's side.

Katie blinked in surprise, "He's surprisingly shy." She said to the son of Hades who grumbled.

"I _know_." Nico sighed in exasperation, "It took awhile for me to coax him to come with me."

Katie hummed thoughtfully, "Yeah, but he seems to like you now, what did you do?"

Nico's flushed and crossed his arms, "I showed him a trick with he shadows and he was impressed."

The daughter of Demeter smiled teasingly, "I never thought I'd see the day, the son of Hades doing parlor tricks."

Nico scowled. Will looked up at him with wide, blue eyes.

" 'S Nico upset?" The blond asked, arms around the son of Hades tightening. The dark-haired teen blinked in surprise.

"Uh, no, Will, I'm not upset. I'm okay." He immediately calmed the boy. "How about you? You doing okay down there?"

Will leaned back just enough for Nico to see his face. He looked up and a shy smile graced his expression before nodding and then burying his face back into Nico's side. The son of Hades' face flushed. Gods, Will was a cute kid.

Katie tried to hide her giggle by clearing her throat. Unfortunately, other demigods had no tact and were squealing over the cute display of Will and Nico. The son of Hades made his expression more menacing. He turned to glare at the gathering of Hecate's children, who shifted guiltily.

"Right, antidote." One of them said, nodding vigorously, interpreting the glare. "We'll get Lou Ellen." And off they went.

"I'll take Will to his siblings and see if there's any side effects from the magic." Katie offered when she saw Nico turn her glare back to the Stoll brothers, who knew better than to escape this time. "Meanwhile, you can deal with…" She gestured to the sons of Hermes who looked at her with betrayed eyes. "Just don't go overboard."

As a confused Will was gently dragged back to his cabin, making soft inquiring noises asking why Nico wasn't coming with them, Nico turned to look at the Stoll brothers, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Now, where were we?" The son of Hades said as the temperature dropped again.

The campers tried not to be bothered by the sounds of squeaking and pig squealing from their direction.

(Pig balls, thanks Hecate cabin)

* * *

A few days had passed since the whole Stoll debacle and Will was still the same five-to-seven-year-old from a prank-gone-wrong. In those few days, the surprisingly shy blond kid had managed to worm himself into everyone's hearts, demigods, naiads, dryads, immortals, and even Mr. D, alike. There was just something endearing about watching Will dressed up in small sized medical scrubs, dragging a blue blanket, hugging a bee stuffed animal, around the camp while his blond curls bounced and his pale blue eyes twinkled under the sun.

Not everyone was happy about the new adorable addition to camp being the center of attention, though.

Nico scowled and crossed his arms when _another_ Aphrodite teen kneeled and gave an oblivious child Will a kiss on the cheek. The blond gave her a shy, uncertain smile, probably wondering why everyone kept giving him kisses.

"Hey, lose the glare." Cecil nudged the son of Hades on the side, "Don't want you scaring Will when he eventually comes over, right?"

The son of Hades glared at the other before breathing in deeply and sighing, "Right." He said bitterly.

Cecil gave him an amused look, "I don't know if it's cute, or creepy, that you're being jealous over a kid. You know you're still Will's favorite right?"

The dark-haired teen scoffed, "Yeah, right." He said, sarcasm dripping with his words. "Malcolm knitted Will that bee stuffed toy, he likes taking naps with Jake Mason, and he and Percy like playing around with fake swords all day. _They_ could be Will's favorites, not me." He shook his head, "I hardly spend any time _with_ him and I have regressed to watching him from the shadows like a creepy stalker."

" _Which_ he would be flattered to learn… once he's back to normal." Cecil said, trying to cheer him up. Nico gave him a glare and the son of Hermes' sighed. He placed an arm around the son of Hades' shoulders which Nico begrudgingly allowed (he remembered Will telling him to be more open to people and not to flinch away from a friendly touch). "Look, everything's fine. Will's a kid, I know, but so what? You get to know him even better and you can lord this over him when he gets back. Think of the blackmail material." He said with an evil cackle.

Nico shot the other a look but he couldn't help the smile on his face as he shook his head. "Gods, help me, but you may have a point." He played along.

Cecil nodded sagely, "Exac- ow!"

Nico jumped at Cecil's sudden grunt of pain. Cecil's arm retracted and they looked down to see what that was about. They met annoyed, pale blue eyes.

Nico blinked.

"Will?" The son of Hades kneeled down as Cecil kept muttering and rubbing at his kicked leg. "Something wrong?"

Will's cheeks were puffed up in annoyance but his face was red from embarrassment as well, as though he was embarrassed for his behavior of kicking Cecil.

"You okay?" Nico tried again, mentally cursing himself for not being good with children.

At the question, Will became shy again and he looked down, hands clasped together. " 'S nothing." He mumbled, face getting redder. " 'M sorry for kicking your friend."

The son of Hades blinked and placed an uncertain touch to the small shoulders, "I think you should apologize to Cecil, not me." He said slowly, "And besides, he's not just my friend, he's yours too."

Pale blue eyes peeked at him through blond curls, "He is?"

"Yeah," Nico said and he nudged the standing Cecil's leg, "Right, Cecil?" He asked loudly. The son of Hermes jumped back automatically at Nico's nudge.

"He kicked me!"

"He's a kid." Nico argued back, "And he's still Will, just... younger. Maybe he got annoyed by your face or something, it happens sometimes."

"Or maybe it's because I was taking his favorite person's attention away from him." Cecil grumbled to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Cecil kneeled down beside Nico and gave Will a large smile. "Hey little buddy," He said to the shy boy, "Look, no harm done, okay? I'm tougher than that."

Will ducked his head. "Still sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. I understand why you did it." Cecil said wisely and Will looked at him with wide eyes.

"You do?"

"Yeah, and hey, you don't need to worry, okay? Nico's all yours." The son of Hermes assured, "I have my own special person too and I don't go taking other people's special person from them."

"Cecil!" Nico scolded, face beet red. But Will was nodding, stars in his eyes. Cecil ignored the son of Hades.

"Thank you!" Will said sincerely, "You're amazing!"

Cecil laughed and Nico sighed as the son of Hermes ruffled Will's soft-looking blond curls. "No problem little buddy."

* * *

After such a tiring day of Cecil and kid-Will bonding, Nico trudged back to his cabin tiredly. He changed out of his dark ensemble into a darker set of pajamas and a cotton shirt. He fell face-first into his bed and sighed. It was unfair that Will was spending so much time with everyone else _but_ him. He knew it was a childish way of thinking and he felt selfish in wishing that teen Will would come back already so everything would be back to normal: Will and Nico having walks by the lake, Will bringing him lunch and nagging him.

Realizing where his thoughts were leading him, Nico let out a groan of embarrassment and buried his face deeper into the pillow. _Urgh_ , feelings. When did he become such a sap? Nico decided to stop thinking about it and go to sleep.

It worked, because only a few minutes later, the son of Hades found himself drifting off into oblivion.

.

.

.

Nico didn't know how long he'd been sleeping for, when he was suddenly woken up by banging on his door. He grumbled and flopped around on his bed for several seconds.

"Nico! Open up! It's Will!"

At the blond's name, the son of Hades jumped up and threw himself to the door.

"What's wrong?" He demanded immediately when he opened the door, eyes narrowed and looking at Justin, Will's brother, who had woken him. "What happened?"

Justin's face was pale, "We don't know. Kayla woke up to get something to drink and to check on the younger ones when she noticed Will wasn't in bed."

Nico felt his heart seize for a moment, "The harpies?"

"We requested Chiron to hold them back as soon as we realized he was missing." Justin said seriously, "Jason's already scouring the sky and Percy's been talking with the naiads and dryads. Everyone else is looking everywhere for him, we sent the Ares cabin to scour outside the borderline."

"I got it." Nico said as he grabbed a nearby jacket slung carelessly over a chair. "There are shadows everywhere, I have more advantage of finding him."

"That's what we hope." Justin said as he followed Nico out of his door. "When you find him, bring him to the infirmary, okay? So we could make sure he's alright."

Nico merely nodded as he walked towards the darkest shadows and allowed himself to be sunk in. He closed his eyes and thought of blond curls and pale blue eyes.

* * *

The search lasted for another thirty-five minutes after Nico was woken up before the son of Hades finally found the missing blond. It was on his seventh shadow travel, towards the hidden pond in the forest near the stables, that he heard soft, sniffling sounds.

Nico's head snapped up and he was running as fast as he could towards the source.

He found the shivering, small form of Will Solace under a pine oak tree. There was a young, child naiad in front of him, making soft cooing noises.

"What happened!?" Nico immediately demanded and the child naiad jumped away, eyes filled with guilt. She jumped into the pond and out of sight. "Wait-" But it was too late, the pond already grew still.

Cursing in Italian, Nico turned to the sniffling blond, kneeling in front of him, dark eyes worried. "Hey, Will, it's okay, you're okay."

Teary, red-rimmed, blue eyes looked up at him in surprise. "Nico?" He mumbled.

The son of Hades wondered if he should hug him or something, but in his uncertainty he just sat beside the distraught blond. "Yeah, it's me." He couldn't resist running a hand through the disheveled blond locks. He was so worried. The teen sighed, "What happened?"

"Mimi, wanted to play."

Nico's eyebrow rose, "Mimi?"

"Her." Will pointed at the pond where the naiad just jumped in. He must have been talking about her. Nico's lips pursed in disapproval.

"Will," He said, trying to sound patient and not scolding, "It's dangerous to go out at night. Something could have happened."

Will's eyes grew teary as he nodded, "I know." He looked down at his feet, "I'm sorry."

The son of Hades sighed, "If you know, then why did you go with her anyway?"

Will blinked his eyes rapidly, tears stained his pale cheeks. "Thought- thought I could ask her about mom." He said softly, "Everyone in camp is nice, but no one tells me about mom."

Nico looked taken aback before he understood, "You want-" He hesitated, "You want to go home."

Will nodded, lower lip trembling, "I'm having lots of fun. I like everyone, I like NIco but…" The other's shoulder began to shake and heartbreaking sob came from the blond. The son of Hades placed an arm around him, finally drawing him into a hug.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You're okay."

Will buried his wet face into Nico's shoulder, small hands griping his shirt tightly, "I want- I want to-"

"I know it must be hard to be surrounded by so many people you don't know." Nico bit his lip. _Gods_ , how could he have forgotten that Will was just a kid who didn't know where he was? Of course he was missing his family! Everyone was just so excited to have such a cute kid in camp that they all missed something _obvious_. And Will, not wanting to get in anybody's bad side, said nothing about it. "But we care about you and I know it's hard, but you have to trust us. You'll see your mom again, soon."

Will continued to tremble against him but he nodded. "I trust-" He hiccupped pitifully into the other's shirt. "I trust you N-Nico."

The son of Hades' chest hurt as he hugged the blond closer. "Thank you." He said, "But Will, I'm serious about you getting hurt. You shouldn't do this again, okay? Something could have happened."

"It's o-okay." Will hiccupped as he leaned back. And before Nico could say that _no, it's definitely not okay_ , pale blue eyes looked up at him with trust. "Whatever happens, you'll come an' save me, won't you, Nico?"

Nico looked down at the blond in surprise, "I-"

"You will." Will assured the teen, before he burrowed back into his embrace and said sleepily, "You will."

And that's how Jason found them later, Will, sleeping contently in a tired but grateful Nico's arms. The son of Jupiter bit back his teasing and comments. Much later, the Apollo cabin decided that Will would sleep better at Nico's cabin than at theirs. Jason couldn't help but give the other a thumbs up.

Nico's reply glare wasn't all that scary at all.

* * *

"So, we just have to wait for the spell to wear off?" Nico asked Lou Ellen tiredly, a few days after the incident.

"Yep." She nodded, her expression took on a guilty one, "I'm sorry we couldn't make an antidote or find a reverse spell. We need ingredients for both. Hard-to-find ingredients. But if our estimates are correct, the spell will wear off before we can finish the antidote or find a spell."

The son of Hades sighed, "It's fine. It's good to hear that it isn't permanent, at least."

Lou Ellen's expression turned mischievous, "I don't know, I think it would be cute: _Nico waiting for his one true love to grow up before they can be together again._ " She sighed dreamily.

Nico scowled at her, "Not funny."

"It's a little funny. I mean, if we take into account your _real_ age-"

But before Lou Ellen could finish her thought or Nico could use a skeleton to scare her into silence, Katie caught a glimpse of them and ran towards their direction, to their surprise.

"Lou! Nico! It's Will!" Katie said, slightly out of breath, but before she could finish her sentence, the worried son of Hades was already shadow-travelling to the place he last saw the blond.

* * *

Kayla and Austin yelped when a certain demigod stumbled out of the shadows and towards them.

"Will." Nico breathed out, "Where is he? They said you took him to the infirmary?" The dark-haired teen looked around, wondering if he was in the right place.

"This _is_ the infirmary." Kayla said patiently, "And your boyfriend is over there." She pointed at the second to the last, occupied bed with drawn curtains around it. Nico hurriedly headed towards that direction and pulled back the curtains.

An unconscious, _teen_ , Will Solace with his usual shaggy blond hair and tanned skin greeted his eyes, making Nico jump back in surprise.

"Will!" He said, relieved, before he hurried to the blond's side. The son of Apollo was wearing a patient's gown. "What happened? When did the spell wear off?"

"They were in the middle of class when he suddenly fell unconscious and there was an explosion of pink smoke." Kayla explained. By class, she meant the children's class they had in Camp. Those below eight years-old weren't allowed to participate in any extreme classes (like archery and sword fighting) yet and were just given a few self-defense classes and had other normal ones like: art class, handicrafts class, etc. "He tore through the shirt, since he suddenly grew, but thankfully the shorts were stretchable and no one got an eyeful. We threw a blanket over him and brought him here."

"Is he okay?"

"We checked his vitals and everything seems okay, we have to wait until he wakes up though, just to be safe." Will's sister assured him. Nico sighed in relief.

"That's good."

Silence descended on them as Kayla and Austin exchanged mischievous looks. Nico looked up at them in suspicion and slight irritation.

" _What?_ "

Austin cleared his throat, "Did you know what class Will was taking when the spell wore off?" His eyes twinkled in glee.

Nico frowned and looked at the wall clock. It was half past nine, so; "I don't know, art or something?"

Kayla nodded seriously, fighting the smile off her face. "Art. And did you know what the kids were doing?"

Nico shook his head, "No." And then he added, "And this is important, _why_?"

They ignored his question. "Piper was the one in-charge of the class and she told the kids to draw their favorite hero." Austin helpfully supplied.

"So Will drew the Flash." Nico shrugged, remembering his boyfriend's addiction to that comic book, " _And_?"

Austin and Kayla snickered, "He didn't draw the Flash guy."

Nico blinked, "What-?" But before he could ask further, a drawing was shoved under his nose.

Dark eyes squinted for a bit at the drawn page before, finally, Nico managed to get it. It was a childish drawing of a dark figure under the shadow of a tree. "Is that-?"

"If the all capital letters: NICO written there, isn't clear enough, then the answer to your question is _yes_." Kayla said, a smug smile on her face. "He drew _you_ , Nico."

"What?" Nico stuttered, dark eyes wide. His heart was beating fast, cheeks coloring slightly. " _Why?_ "

"We were there when they had to present their drawing." Austin explained, "Will stomped to front and proudly showed his drawing to everyone. He said, " _Not all heroes have to be from comics and famous people on t.v. Sometimes the people who mean a lot to us can be heroes too. Because they're there and in their own way they save us too. Because we know they'll save us. And that's why Nico is my superhero. Because he's there and even when he doesn't say something and even when other people find him scary, I don't think he is. He's always there and I always feel safe. I know he'll save me, no matter what._ "

Nico's eyes were burning lightly and he hoped to the gods that he didn't look like he was about to cry. He was speechless.

The children of Apollo seemed to get what he was feeling because Kayla placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"Seems like you did a good job in looking after him, Nico." Kayla said gently, a smile on her face. "Thank you."

Austin patted him on the back and the two of them turned to leave the couple alone.

Nico sat there for several minutes looking at the piece of paper, wondering _how_ he could have impacted someone's life so much in such a short time. So much so that he even got to be called a hero.

The son of Hades turned towards Will and a smile came to his face. He reached out and ran a hand through Will's shaggy, blond hair. The unconscious teen mumbled a bit.

Nico, too, felt like he had been saved.

* * *

Will woke up a few hours later, to Nico curled up, asleep, in his chair like a cat. A fond smile lit up the blond's face. His mouth and lips felt dry and he sat up to reach for a glass of water on his bedside when he noticed something on his stomach.

It was a piece of paper with a childishly drawn dark figure under a tree. Will lifted the familiar art to his eyes, noticing that there was something else drawn in it too.

There was a yellow figure with yellow curls sitting underneath the tree and leaning against the dark figure. There was something written in Nico's penmanship to the right side of the drawing:

 _You're my superhero too._

Will blinked, surprised. He noticed more writings. At the very bottom of the page:

 _We saved each other._

Will protectively held the drawing close. The bright smile on his face could've eclipsed the sun.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** There could be a part two of this with Nico as a kid and a part three with the two of them as kids. But not sure, have to finish the week drabbles thing XD Super busy, please let me know if the story was okay. Thank you!


End file.
